"Good fun." —Kirkus Reviews

2023-04-24
In this spinoff from Roy's A to Z Mysteries series, an amateur sleuth and friends work to solve a disappearance case.

Abbi Wallace and her twin best friends, Lydia and Daniel Herrera, are bound for the Maine State Fair. They’re excited to see the costume contest—for alpacas! They’ll be rooting for the Herreras’ family friend’s entry, Alpaca in Wonderland. But when they arrive, the contest is delayed indefinitely, since all the alpacas (except for Alpaca in Wonderland) are missing! Now the Herreras’ friend Margery Meadows has fallen under suspicion. Abbi’s adoptive mom is a mystery writer, so Abbi feels up for looking into the disappearance. The trio look for clues in the contestants’ barn, which take them into the woods behind the fair, where Lydia and Daniel help to clear a path for Abbi’s electric wheelchair. They find the missing alpacas at Meadows’ Meadows, Margery’s farm and animal sanctuary, but the reason is more complicated than they realize. This easy-to-read chapter book begins an alphabetically titled series sure to intrigue amateur sleuths and animal lovers. As in many children’s mysteries, the low stakes keep the crime fairly benign, but the characters’ personal investment gives the search meaning. Burgett’s illustrations are Saturday-morning-cartoon friendly, nearly ready to leap onto your television screen. Abbi appears White in the illustrations, while Margery and her adult son are tan-skinned. The twins are brown-skinned and cued as Latine.

Good fun. (Fiction. 7-11)